TransUnion
Reston, Virginia
Sr Manager Database
Dec 2021 to Jun 2025
Résumé · scottjohnson.tech · Sterling, Virginia
Sterling, Virginia
Scott Johnson
Retired IT operations leader. He builds and runs self-hosted web products and a homelab, and he writes full-stack code that is concise, documented, and fast.
From 1991 to 2025, Scott Johnson led database and programming work in operations, including database services at Neustar and the Sr Manager Database role at TransUnion. Oracle and PostgreSQL were at the center of that work.
He lives in Sterling, Virginia. Aerial Aspect Media is his business, and he is a Part 107 drone pilot. He prefers hard problems, and side projects that can earn income without taking much of his time.
- Education
- Management Science, Virginia Tech
- Certifications
- PostgreSQL 9.3 Associate, ITIL Foundation
- Skills
- Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Integration
Experience
Database services, data architecture, and earlier engineering roles, 1991 to 2025.
Neustar, Inc.
Sterling, Virginia · 24 years 3 months
Neustar was acquired by TransUnion in December 2021.
Database Services Manager
Jan 2016 to Jun 2025
He led a team supporting 800+ databases on Oracle, MySQL, Postgres, and SQL Server. High availability, disaster recovery, and backups were implemented and tested to each business line's SLA. The team supported both on-premises and AWS cloud database technology.
Manager, Database Services
Jan 2014 to Jan 2016
Senior Data Architect
Apr 2001 to Jan 2014
Senior Data Warehouse Architect for Neustar.
Nextel
Herndon, Virginia
Data Warehouse Architect
Aug 1997 to Mar 2001
SHL Systemhouse
Reston, Virginia
Senior Systems Engineer
Sep 1994 to Aug 1997
PRC
McLean, Virginia
Developer
Jan 1993 to Sep 1994
System Engineer
SONEX Enterprises, Inc.
Fairfax, Virginia
Programmer
Jun 1991 to Jan 1993
Education
1986 to 1991
Bachelor's degree, Management Science. Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).
Certifications
- PostgreSQL 9.3 Associate
- ITIL Foundation
Skills
Data warehousing, business intelligence, and integration, plus the languages and tools he uses to build.
Languages
Python (intermediate to advanced), SQL for Oracle and PostgreSQL, JavaScript (ES2022 and Vite), YAML, and zsh shell scripting.
Web
Flask, PostgreSQL, vanilla JavaScript front ends, NGINX, and Docker Compose. Full-stack development and testing are part of this work.
Cloud and edge
Cloudflare Pages, Workers, Tunnels, Zero Trust, R2, DDNS, and Web Analytics. AWS S3 Glacier. Stripe for checkout.
APIs
Stripe, Amazon Associates and the Creators API, Etsy Open API v3, the ESPN API, the Anthropic API (Claude Haiku), and the npm registry API.
DevOps
Git, Docker, Ansible, Terraform, Prometheus, Grafana, cAdvisor, and node_exporter.
Security
1Password CLI templates for environment files, so credentials stay out of plaintext config.
AI tooling
A heavy Claude Code setup: hooks, permissions, slash commands, CLAUDE.md, and status lines.
Products
Self-hosted web products, plus a few smaller tools.
WishList
mywishlist.gifts · Flask · PostgreSQL · Vite
A self-hosted gift registry with friend networks, anonymous share links, and a way to mark a gift as bought without spoiling the surprise. It runs behind NGINX and a Cloudflare tunnel. Product links are rewritten with affiliate tags, and Amazon is live. A hybrid gift-curation pipeline draws on Etsy, with a shared backend that also serves an internal sourcing tool. Recent work includes Core Web Vitals and INP tuning, and a UI overhaul.
PhotoCap
photoshare.events · Cloudflare R2 · Stripe
Event photo sharing. A host gets a QR code, and guests upload from their phones with no app or account. Uploads go to R2 through presigned URLs, then a rendition pipeline builds the gallery. Paid tiers go through Stripe, with a capped free tier.
Steve
Claude · Obsidian
A Claude-powered second brain in an Obsidian vault. Capturing a note never blocks. Every fact traces back to a source. Secrets and personal data are not stored.
Smaller tools
- A Python timelapse pipeline for security cameras.
- A face-recognition tool for race photos.
- A sports-data feed into Home Assistant.
Homelab
Infrastructure he runs himself.
Compute
A three-node Proxmox cluster and a standalone node on Beelink mini PCs, Ubuntu servers, a Synology NAS, and several Docker VMs.
Networking
pfSense, with Omada SDN switches and access points. Segmented VLANs, Pi-hole with Unbound for DNS, Nginx Proxy Manager, and WireGuard.
Problems solved
A WireGuard cryptokey-routing address collision between peers. HTTP/2 connection coalescing failures, fixed by changing the proxy hosts together through the API. A camera traffic storm, fixed with host networking on a VLAN sub-interface. Cloudflare tunnel 502 and 400 errors.
Monitoring
Prometheus and Grafana fleet dashboards with role-based labels, tied into Home Assistant.
Config
Dotfiles synced across macOS and Ubuntu through a bare git repo on the NAS, with oh-my-zsh.
Home automation
Home Assistant runs as a Proxmox VM. The house uses a Zigbee2MQTT mesh and mmWave presence sensors, Frigate NVR with Intel VAAPI hardware acceleration, Tesla through Teslemetry, Apple TV blueprints, and Wake-on-LAN. Irrigation is a cloud integration through HACS, with a dedicated service account for the irrigation integration.
Entity names follow one convention, and alerts are routed in tiers.
Other projects
Photo library
Merging decades of Lightroom Classic catalogs into one. Sources include the NAS, local disks, and restored Glacier archives. Original dates stay intact, and the files move to a new folder layout.
Family photo gallery
A self-hosted browser for a personal photo library. Hierarchical keyword filters narrow the collection by subject. Place labels open a map. Docker runs the application, and PostgreSQL holds the catalog.
iOS exploration
Research into underserved App Store niches. The focus is one-time-purchase utilities, including on-device AI built on Apple's Foundation Models framework.
Also built
Raspberry Pi Halloween projections with networked playback control. A private nutrition log for foods and macros, with label-photo OCR and confirmed entries.
3D printing and laser engraving
A Bambu Lab H2S with a 10 W laser module, new as of November 2026. He runs it with Bambu Studio and keeps it on its own network segment. A smart plug reports its power and energy use to Home Assistant.
Interests
- Visiting wineries and breweries, mostly in Loudoun County (about 58 so far, tracked in Obsidian).
- Analyzing Virginia election data.
- Home electrical and deck projects.
- IMAX cinema technology.
- Photography in Lightroom Classic.
Contact
LinkedIn and GitHub are the public profiles. An email address is not published on this site.